Council run care homes vs private

I think it's really individual. I had 3 main criteria for my mum's home -

1. Close to me/station so easy to visit for max people
2. Nice outlook/view- my mum loves nature. She is quite calm now though very impaired, and will stare out/talk about the view endlessly.
3. A manager who got what we were looking for and will care for my mother well but without wanting to send her back to hospital unless there is no alternative (broken hip, basically).
4. Quiet place that won't force her to socialise - she might make friends but mum is intensely private so it's unlikely.

Think about the person first and choose on that basis.

My friend is council funded in a private home. It's not the poshest place. According to the CQC it requires improvement. But it's ideal for him and I really can't fault the care he receives there. When I was a student nurse I did a placement in a 'posh' home and I was not impressed. The care was the bare minimum and residents had to get up when they were told to. Despite them wanting a lie in. Appearances are deceptive.

This is from February so I suspect OP no longer needs the advice!

You've had good advice already so the only thing I will add is that there is work involved with an empty home. Someone has to check it once a week for the insurance to be valid and depending on the size of the garden, once a week isn't enough to keep up with the weeds. If I could magically make mum's turn into the cash I would because of the time it would save me.

As others have said...there are no council homes left where I live, they've all long closed. They were good as staff were trained and paid properly so ended up not financially viable once the market was opened up. Councils never ran nursing homes which were always private, as the alternative were long stay hospital wzrds also long gone. Research who owns the homes....and remember big companies are making money for share holders. 'Which' and Age UK have good info on what to look for in a care home. If you pick a home that is expensive and then run out of money the local authority aren't obliged to keep them there and may move to a cheaper home.

With regard to which is best, selling the home or putting it in trust. If you rent out her home the rent may not cover the fees. You will have administrative charges and fees related to that as well deferred fee charge. There are also fees to pay if the house is put intoTrust.

The unknown factors are , how long the relative will live and how will house price grow or diminish over the time she is I. Care.

If the relative owns their own home and there is no spouse or dependent relative living in the property she will not be entitled to free care. The LA will carry out a financial assessment and the house will need to be sold or held in trust, with the LA getting its money when it is sold.

I agree that price is not necessarily and indication of qualify. The LA will give you a list of local homes or you can find a home yourself.Every home that I know of has both free and fee paying residents. The care is the same.

The only element that she may be entitled to, is for medical condition and this makes up a small part of the fees. The majority goes towards what are known as hotel costs. Food, accommodation, Heating, laundry Staff wages, insurance, etc.

In you case I would leave the decision making to MiL. She will get a rude awakening I fear.

The manager certainly isn't lobbying for custom, has declined to take prospective residents that they don't feel are a good fit for the home.

All of us who work there say it is where we'd want to go if we needed a care home.

You need to go and see the care home in question yourself. Care home.co.uk has lots of good helpful information on picking a care home and you can find so many reviews on there too. When visiting a care home, try to tour it properly. Inspect all areas, non communal and communal at the same time as well. This is a list of things to discuss

Food
Amenities and facilities
Policies
Activities

See if you can find a inspection report.

Sorry, that should be 'fur coat no knickers'!

Agree with most of the comments here, in particular the 'first coat no knickers' ones where. you're paying for the chandeliers. That said, in Surrey I never found any Council-run care homes of the kind described (they'd abolished them all years ago, though I understand in the last few years they've set up around five or six, probably as they realised they were paying big private care homes a fortune to house council-funded residents there and were getting ripped off...)

Often you only find out what it's like after you've signed up and handed your parent over. Care home managers I've found are just lobbying for custom and you will never, ever meet the proprietor (talking about private ones, the only ones I ever got to experience.)

Old thing about getting LPA in Health and Welfare before you let your parent within sniffing distance of a care home.

As for it being two years in a care home generally, yes, well you might want to ask how that is exactly. It does seem a bit Logan's Run and I have my own theories about why I had to visit Mum daily for years to give her drink while the care homes refused to do so, after she'd been in one for, erm, roughly two years.

She lasted another four or so, because of our visits.

I know you didn’t ask this but my biggest question would always be what activities do the home do for their residents and not just the more able ones.

That's such a good point. DMIL does have regular activities, although I'm not always convinced they're entirely suitable for someone so confused with Dementia but she does do some activities that definitely are. Whereas my DF had her DF put into a care home suddenly after a hospital visit. It was a very big home, none of the staff seemed to know the patient's names and there were no activities at all for the dementia patients.

She moved him on the advice of the SW to a much smaller home that again was snappy but they were utterly brilliant with him.

The average stay in a care home is two years. The average house value is around £250k so would generate 4/5 years in a decent care home. You don’t get to choose whether or not you pay, if your assets are more than £23.5k, you pay. End of. And, as many of us have pointed out, council owned care homes no longer exist in many parts of the country.

My view is why not sell the home (worth a fair bit) and just fund the lovely private care home.

I think the marketing departments of many "lovely" care homes are designed to attract the guilty relatives rather than the actual people who will stay there.

Will they really make use of all the facilities.

Have you had a look at how long the assets will last compared to the cost of the care home? When we were looking for DM, we noticed how much "cheaper" the termly fees for Eton College are compared to any cafe home.

As PP have mentioned, it's really a difference between homes where local councils cover the full fees and those where a top up is required. What would happen in the lovely private home when/if their funds ran out? Would you be in a position to fund the top up? Worst case, Imagine having to move from the lovely private home to a council run one at an advanced age when funds have run out.

The ones which require a top up do not do scholarships.

I’ve worked in care homes and as others have said I’d go for a smaller one for definite; i worked in one with 60 residents (20 to a floor) and it was hard to remember people’s names and because the company wanted to make as much money as possible the staff levels were low so we were run off our feet and couldn’t spend time with the residents.
I know you didn’t ask this but my biggest question would always be what activities do the home do for their residents and not just the more able ones

This is one of many areas where in my view the state tends to deliver better than private. Think of it as not-for-profit vs profit. Sadly though there are no state homes left in my area (save for a rehabilitation unit).

This explains it all.

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/deferred-payment-agreements-for-long-term-care

It feels like a lot less hassle to sell the house. We didn’t because there was no need but I would definitely have done it if the money had run out.

There are no council run homes in the area where I live or the area where I work either.

I do agree with the others about not being fooled by how the home looks.

DMIL's home is shabby, just has 35 residents and close to home. They are very, very caring and that comes across everytime we deal with them and in all of the relative's reviews.

Where I am the council run care homes only accept clients who are funded by the council. Private clients have to go elsewhere.

The council run one is far better than most of the private ones by the way.

There are no council run homes where I live. We looked at three for my parents, all about the same price. I cried when we came out of one, it was beyond dreadful and I wouldn’t put my worst enemy in there. The second one was nice but a bit down at heel and the facilities weren’t great. The one they went into was lovely, the staff were brilliant and it had a really upbeat atmosphere when you went in.

My criteria were cleanliness, definitely no smell of wee, friendly staff and decent food. We got all of those, the place smelt of roses - not industrial disinfectant.

You’re right the possibility of CHC funding is very remote indeed. Given it’s inevitably going to cost money, choose the one that feels right.

My local 3 private carehomes, run by a large private provider, cost 1200 p.w. they have self funders and council funded residents, some residents are chc funded to the full amount . There is a new private home that costs 1750 pw but I dont know if its exclusive to self funders. Does she need a nursing or residential home, what area is she looking at.

I had my gran in a Council run home (4+ years) at £750 a week. I had my aunt in a Private home (4+ years) at £1200 a week. I preferred private home and sister preferred council run home. Both understaffed, just one slightly better decorated common areas than the other. Rooms you can decorate as you choose. Both houses sold to pay costs and very little difference in either.

Only “council” run home I know in this entire district is a rehab home, so the elderly are sent there while they figure out a long term solution for them. These homes are good because like all public sector institutions there is more money in the pot! The staffing ratios are much higher.

Sorry that should have said that the public funding will not reach the amount for the more expensive homes not “private”